The BBC Trust has ruled that Radio 4's Today programme breached rules on accuracy, after presenter John Humphrys referred to the occupied Golan Heights as being part of Israel.

Humphrys made the comment during a programme on the annual Nakba Day protests – when Palestinian and other Arab protesters march on land held by Israel but where boundaries and borders are in dispute.

In the programme, which was broadcast on 16 May 2011, Humphrys referred to protesters having "actually crossed over the border into Israel" when marching into the Golan Heights.

In its ruling published on Tuesday, the BBC Trust's editorial standards committee (ESC) noted that the Today programme has a "good record of being duly accurate and impartial" in its coverage of the Middle East.

However, it also said that a "devil's advocate" approach by Humphrys was not "a reason for the lack of clarity over the status of the Golan Heights, which could have been clarified during the interview or in the scripted introduction".

The ESC concluded that the Today programme had breached guidelines on accuracy for implying the Golan Heights were part of Israel.

"The committee was satisfied, however, that this breach of the guidelines was inadvertent and was not knowingly misleading," it said. "The committee did not consider that this breach of the accuracy guidelines raised any issues in relation to impartiality."

A complaint was made to the BBC that the Golan Heights and Majdal Shams, the main village involved in the protests, was in fact "occupied" Syrian territory and not part of Israel as Humphrys asserted on two occasions.

The complainant said that the implication of Humphrys's comments was that Israeli military forces potentially had the right to use force because they were defending their territory.

He said this view was backed by the comments of Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman who was interviewed during the programme, who said that "there were thousands on the border with Syria trying to break into Israel".

According to the BBC Trust investigation into the programme, 12 people were killed and dozens injured in the Nakba Day protests in 2011.

BBC management said that Humphrys was "reflecting on why Israeli forces thought they could defend their actions" and that this was not a case of bias but "opening a topic for discussion".

However, the complainant pointed out that the BBC's own news website covering the same story acknowledged that the Golan Heights was "occupied" territory by Israel since 1967.

The issue was passed from BBC management to the trust on 30 May last year. The BBC Trust noted that a range of news outlets – including Israeli paper Ha'aretz, the Guardian, Daily Mail and Associated Press – referred to the incident as a clash on the border with Syria.

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